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Sustainable design, which aims to reduce energy consumption and mitigate climate change, is a primary concern of developing countries. Hence, it reduces CO2 emissions. Residential buildings in North Iraq account for approximately 69% of all electricity consumed. To mitigate this issue, this article investigates the design of a sustainable model by considering the local climate, building design occupant behaviour, and sociocultural needs in the region and their impact on energy use. This study used mixed research methods to develop a sustainable single-family house model in semi-arid climates, specifically Erbil (North Iraq), the process consisted of three phases. Phase One saw the collection of all data from analysed literature, observation, worship, case study simulations of the base, and an improved model. Phase Two defined the guidelines for creating sustainable model dwellings based on the main findings in Phase One. Phase Three created a prototype to evaluate the sustainable model, primarily focusing on meeting people's design preferences while avoiding privacy concerns. In addition, DesignBuilder Software simulation was used to examine the impact of occupancy behaviour (based on local culture and traditions) on the building's energy performance throughout two phases. In the first step, three occupancy profile types are compared with real-life study bills. These profiles were the base case, which came from an actual case; the statistical profile from surveys; and the international standard ASHRAE 90.1, which was used as the default. The second phase compared the base model with an improved model and developed a sustainable prototype that satisfies local climate and sociocultural needs. The result indicated that the standard occupant profile significantly differs from the actual bill by 40%, whereas the statistical profile and base case reduce the gap to 11% and 4%, respectively. The sustainable prototype model can enhance operative temperature by 4 °C and decrease total energy use by 50% compared to the base case model. Data also showed that occupants keep lights on even when rooms are unoccupied. Therefore, when designing sustainable dwellings, it is crucial to consider occupant behaviour and their sociocultural needs, as they have a significant impact on energy use as a result of their activity patterns and schedules. These factors should be considered in the local code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of replacing a gas heating system with an outdoor air heat pump in an EFH in terms of CO2 savings, self‐sufficiency and cost‐effectiveness In Germany, existing buildings account for around 30 % of the total final energy demand. The success of the heating transition therefore depends on the saving potential in existing buildings. In addition to the refurbishment of the building envelope, this also includes the use of climate‐neutral heat supply. To achieve this goal, it is advantageous and necessary to convert the system technology from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. At present, the heat pump is rightly regarded as the key technology for the success of the heating transition. This article analyses the degree of self‐sufficiency of the combination of heat pump and photovoltaic system in detail. In order to determine the degree of self‐sufficiency, an existing single‐family house as practical example has been analyzed using a building simulation by PV*SOL programme. The load‐based degree of self‐sufficiency is determined and presented as a function of the associated investment costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) is progressing. The use of microcontrollers and sensors in buildings is described as a level 3B maturity in the use of BIM. Design companies, contractors and building operators can use IoT solutions to monitor, analyze or manage processes. As a rule, solutions based on original Arduino boards are quite an expensive investment. The aim of this research was to find a low-cost IoT solution for monitoring, analysis and management, and integrate it with a BIM model. In the present study, an inexpensive NodeMCU microcontroller and a temperature and pressure sensor were used to study the thermal comfort of users in a single-family home. During the summer season, analysis of the monitored temperature can contribute to installation (HVAC) or retrofit work (for energy efficiency). The article presents a low-cost solution for studying the thermal comfort of users using a digital twin built-in BIM. Data obtained from sensors can support both the design and management processes. The main contribution of the article enables the design, construction and use of low-cost circuits (15.57 USD) even in small developments (single-family houses, semi-detached houses, terraced houses, atrium buildings). Combining IoT sensor telemetry with BIM (maturity level 3C) is a challenge that organizations will face in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Properly designed and installed interior stairs provide safe and convenient access to all residents of the house, including children and elderly people. While safety considerations are paramount for stair design and placement decisions in a two-storey single-family house, sustainability becomes another important factor in these deliberations. Nevertheless, safety and sustainability of the interior stairs can be seen as conflicting objectives in decision-making processes (i.e., while a larger staircase area positively affect residents' climbing ability, it also causes higher energy consumption and material usage). Therefore, increased awareness of stair-project selection processes is required when multi-objective tasks are involved. Seven criteria affecting stair safety and sustainability in a single-family house are identified in this paper. The integrated AHP-MEREC criteria-weighting approach is proposed, to determine their weights in decision-making processes. Four different multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches, ARAS, SAW, TOPSIS and PROMETHEE, were used to determine alternative evaluations. Since the selection of the most suitable MCDM method is full of uncertainties, the novel combined-decision-making approach formally called CORST (COmbining MCDM appRoaches using method STability coefficient) is proposed in this paper. The new method stability coefficient is used to determine the stability and reliability of the specific MCDM approach. Nine U-shaped inside-staircase projects dedicated to a single-family house were evaluated, to test the effectiveness of the CORST approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of technology, time and costs of three methods of building a single-family house; traditional brick, reinforced concrete prefabrication and timber frame. The goal of this study was to determine if prefabricated and timber frame building methods and materials have the potential to replace traditional method of construction in the context of cost and time. For this purpose, a qualitative analysis was performed, including a list of benefits of each of the analysed construction technologies and a quantitative analysis in which the cost of finished houses per 1 m2 of usable area was compared. The analyses were conducted for two single-family houses with similar characteristics using scheduling and cost estimation software. The conducted analyses have shown that the shortest time to build a house is in the prefabricated reinforced concrete technology. The used construction technology from ready-made prefabricated elements affects the time of building house and thus, the costs of its construction. The construction time for the house in case of a timber frame structure and made of ready-made reinforced concrete prefabricated elements is similar but the cost of a timber frame structure is much higher. It takes longest time to build a house in traditional brick technology and requires the involvement of the largest financial resources from all three analysed construction technologies. Despite this, traditional brick technology is the most used in construction in Poland and other Central and Easter Europe countries. This is due to the widespread belief of investors about the durability of a building made in this technology and the habits of investors resulting from a long-standing tradition of construction. However, the study’s results in the world showed that a change in build technology is a step in addressing the concerns of poor quality and reduce construction costs and time, increasing the construction sector’s productivity and sustainability.

The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) is progressing. The use of microcontrollers and sensors in buildings is described as a level 3B maturity in the use of BIM. Design companies, contractors and building operators can use IoT solutions to monitor, analyze or manage processes. As a rule, solutions based on original Arduino boards are quite an expensive investment. The aim of this research was to find a low-cost IoT solution for monitoring, analysis and management, and integrate it with a BIM model. In the present study, an inexpensive NodeMCU microcontroller and a temperature and pressure sensor were used to study the thermal comfort of users in a single-family home. During the summer season, analysis of the monitored temperature can contribute to installation (HVAC) or retrofit work (for energy efficiency). The article presents a low-cost solution for studying the thermal comfort of users using a digital twin built-in BIM. Data obtained from sensors can support both the design and management processes. The main contribution of the article enables the design, construction and use of low-cost circuits (15.57 USD) even in small developments (single-family houses, semi-detached houses, terraced houses, atrium buildings). Combining IoT sensor telemetry with BIM (maturity level 3C) is a challenge that organizations will face in the near future.

Since decarbonization of the energy sector is among the top priorities in the EU, with ambitious targets of carbon neutrality until 2050, the energy efficiency of the building stock and the use of renewables are those directions, which can bring the most considerable input towards the achievement of these goals. However, it is not always obvious how to efficiently combine different aspects of low energy demand, availability of renewables, part load operation conditions etc. The results of dynamic IDA ICE simulations highlight that the introduction of renewable low-carbon energy sources should be thoroughly coupled with building energy systems and only their full compatibility can give a high efficiency of the entire energy supply system of the building. Analysing simulation data, it was concluded that for low-energy buildings, heat pumps would not always show higher COP values, compared to buildings with higher energy demand. Ground source heat pump (GSHP) will not always be more efficient than air source heat pump (ASHP). If the ground/groundwater temperature is lower than 10 °C, for GSHP it will be almost impossible to over-compete ASHP within the same system. While COP with radiators and underfloor heating differs only by 10 %, both for ASHP and GSHP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of technology, time and costs of three methods of building a single-family house; traditional brick, reinforced concrete prefabrication and timber frame. The goal of this study was to determine if prefabricated and timber frame building methods and materials have the potential to replace traditional method of construction in the context of cost and time. For this purpose, a qualitative analysis was performed, including a list of benefits of each of the analysed construction technologies and a quantitative analysis in which the cost of finished houses per 1 m² of usable area was compared. The analyses were conducted for two single-family houses with similar characteristics using scheduling and cost estimation software. The conducted analyses have shown that the shortest time to build a house is in the prefabricated reinforced concrete technology. The used construction technology from ready-made prefabricated elements affects the time of building house and thus, the costs of its construction. The construction time for the house in case of a timber frame structure and made of ready-made reinforced concrete prefabricated elements is similar but the cost of a timber frame structure is much higher. It takes longest time to build a house in traditional brick technology and requires the involvement of the largest financial resources from all three analysed construction technologies. Despite this, traditional brick technology is the most used in construction in Poland and other Central and Easter Europe countries. This is due to the widespread belief of investors about the durability of a building made in this technology and the habits of investors resulting from a long-standing tradition of construction. However, the study's results in the world showed that a change in build technology is a step in addressing the concerns of poor quality and reduce construction costs and time, increasing the construction sector's productivity and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Slovenia, the existing organised housing infrastructure for people over 65 years of age is insufficient and lacks diversification. Older people are often homeowners, many of whom dwell in large, underused single-family houses that require adaptations. Some have the potential to be transformed into small co-housing communities of 3–6 older people. The houses in question are mostly pattern-book houses of various types, built in the first decades after WWII. To approach the problem of converting this mass resource while providing enough flexibility for individual customisation, a shape grammar was proposed, with the intension of expanding the range of design variations for the transformation of single-family houses and presenting them to both users and architects for further assessment. The shape grammar was inferred based on a corpus of case studies developed by architecture students across two weeklong workshops. Three general strategies emerged—splitting the house vertically (according to sleeping/private and living/communal functions), horizontally, or with the maximum number of sleeping/private spaces. Essential spaces were catalogued to determine the conditions and requirements for assigning every transformation rule. The result was a simple, yet versatile composition generator. Through the development of a user-friendly interface, this resource could be used to empower potential inhabitants in the transformation design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Properly designed and installed interior stairs provide safe and convenient access to all residents of the house, including children and elderly people. While safety considerations are paramount for stair design and placement decisions in a two-storey single-family house, sustainability becomes another important factor in these deliberations. Nevertheless, safety and sustainability of the interior stairs can be seen as conflicting objectives in decision-making processes (i.e., while a larger staircase area positively affect residents’ climbing ability, it also causes higher energy consumption and material usage). Therefore, increased awareness of stair-project selection processes is required when multi-objective tasks are involved. Seven criteria affecting stair safety and sustainability in a single-family house are identified in this paper. The integrated AHP-MEREC criteria-weighting approach is proposed, to determine their weights in decision-making processes. Four different multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches, ARAS, SAW, TOPSIS and PROMETHEE, were used to determine alternative evaluations. Since the selection of the most suitable MCDM method is full of uncertainties, the novel combined-decision-making approach formally called CORST (COmbining MCDM appRoaches using method STability coefficient) is proposed in this paper. The new method stability coefficient is used to determine the stability and reliability of the specific MCDM approach. Nine U-shaped inside-staircase projects dedicated to a single-family house were evaluated, to test the effectiveness of the CORST approach.

The article considers the issue what moment/moments shall be deemed as the beginning of the period for finding defects in two objects obtained und the developer agreement, i.e., a flat/a single-family house (1) and land, on which the single-family house/building in which the apartment is located is erected (2). The above-mentioned issue has already been commented on by the doctrine, but only in relation to the building. Thus, this study supplements the above-mentioned considerations.

Knowledge of the influence of factors determining energy consumption in buildings is very important for the possibility of effective energy saving. This article describes the results of an original study on the analysis of the annual energy demand for heating (QH;nd), cooling (QC;nd), and annual usable energy demand (QH/C;nd = QH;nd + QC;nd) assumed as objective functions of a designed single-family building, which can be classified as a typical representative of currently built houses in Poland. It was assumed that the object of study was located in the climatic conditions of north-eastern Poland. The study takes into consideration three groups of selected parameters: architectural/spatial, structural, and physical properties of windows. The research was carried out in a single-family building, as energy consumption in residential buildings accounts for a significant part of the total energy consumption in buildings. In the group of architectural/spatial parameters, the height of rooms in the building (h) and the window area change coefficient (k) were taken into consideration. The design parameters pertained to the solutions of building components: the density of the material of the inner layer of the external walls (ρ1), the density of the material of internal walls (ρ2), and the thickness of internal walls (d). In the third group of parameters, the heat transfer coefficient of the glazing (Ug) and the total solar transmittance of the glazing (g) were considered. Deterministic mathematical models of these dependencies were developed on the basis of the results of a computational experiment, obtained by performing a simulation with the use of the DesignBuilder software, based on the EnergyPlus computational engine. The models allowed the authors to estimate the degree and nature of the influence of the examined factors on the building's energy demand. As a result of the optimization of parameters according to the energy criterion, the contribution of each of the three groups of parameters to energy saving was determined. Deterministic numerical optimization using MATLAB was applied. It turned out that the factors from the first group played the most important role in energy savings (40.0%), and the factors from the third group contributed slightly less (25.7%). The contribution of the characteristics from the second group was 4.2% of the total value of energy saving. This information can be useful to scientists, as well as engineers and policymakers, in making correct decisions when designing new residential buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a comprehensive understanding of small house practices, including the perspective of Finnish architectural experts, by conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews and proposing an individually designed house case study with a particular focus on cost and quality. Key findings based on main themes including the role and qualifications of the architect, architect's involvement, architect's fee, reasons to hire an architect, implementation, quality, and cost, highlighted that: (1) architect can assist small house projects in many ways, such as accurately identifying the client's needs, choosing the most suitable layout, and applications for building permits; (2) allocating sufficient time for planning an average of six months is critical for the thoughts of both the architect and the client to mature in peace; (3) the share of architectural design in the total cost of the project is around 3–5%; (4) it is estimated that the total amount of small houses designed by an architect is between 10–20%; (5) an architect's typical client is reported to be those who dream of a long-term home and are concerned with aesthetics as well as functional quality; (6) the client is always satisfied with the quality of the house designed by the architect; (7) while an individually designed home may seem more costly than a prefab home, an architect-designed home can be affordable as long as the budget is known from the start of the project. It is believed that this paper will encourage the participation of architects in small house projects that will be expanded and established in the Finnish residential construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In buildings with good-quality thermal insulation of external partitions, the main component of the building's heat balance is the heat demand for ventilation. The reduction of this energy demand cannot be achieved at the expense of thermal comfort of the occupants and indoor air quality. The aim of this article is to analyze the impact of various ventilation strategy (natural and mechanical) on heating demand, thermal comfort, and CO2 concentration in a single-family house located in Poland. The benefits of using fans integrated with the earth tube were tested. The study was based on the numerical energy simulation of a multi-zone building model for the entire calendar year. Contam, EnergyPlus, and Python programs were used to perform calculations. The thermal model was validated on the results of temperature measurements in the building. To obtain the best solutions, the parameters of the systems considered have been optimized with the use of genetic algorithms. Various optimal parameters of the earth tube (diameter, length, and foundation depth) were obtained during this research. The highest number of thermal discomfort hours was obtained in the naturally ventilated building with automatic window opening. This system supplied to the rooms a large amount of cool outdoor air in winter and warm air in summer, causing instantaneous rapid fluctuations in indoor temperature. Supplementing the mechanical ventilation control system with CO2 concentration sensors resulted in a much higher amount of ventilation air supplied to the rooms compared to systems controlled only by temperature sensors, resulting in an increase in heat demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar energy is a fascinating green energy source. the most basic use of solar energy is to convert it into usable heat. Domestic hot water is the second-largest source of household electricity after lighting. The subject of this research is the thermosiphon theory of normal water circulation. An experimental setup and a computer program (POLYSUN) of a solar thermal system are presented in this work in Erbil city of Iraq. A four-person single-family house with a flat-plate solar thermosiphon water heating system and a water capacity of 200 L and also had a total surface area of 2 m². All simulations are conducted with the collector tilt angles of 0°, 10°, 20°, 30°, 40°, 50°, 60°, 70°, 80°, and 90°for the whole year. In January 2021, the experimental work was also taken out in Erbil. The optimum tilt angle of the solar collector is estimated to be close to 40o. the overall energy savings, solar fraction, and collector efficiency are 1284 kWh, 29.6%, and 37.9%, respectively, for the entire year. Polysun Software and the experimental setting of the solar thermal system were compared on the basis of electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, more and more emphasis is being placed on reducing energy consumption in buildings to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Building performance simulation is very useful to predict energy demand and indoor environment quality. An indispensable element of the simulation is the validation and calibration of the model, which is an arduous process. The aim of the study was to present a four-level validation (using measurement results) and calibration of a thermal model of a naturally ventilated single-family house. Numerical calculations using co-simulation between EnergyPlus and Contam were performed. The results of the one-year simulation measurements of the indoor temperature and ventilation airflows were compared. After the calibration was performed, a high convergence of the results was found. The normalized mean bias error for hourly and monthly values did not exceed 1% and the coefficient of variation of the root mean squared error was a maximum of 7% with a simultaneous high correlation of the results in the range from 0.85 to 0.89. It was found that the final results were significantly influenced by the appropriate modeling of air exchange in the building, including the opening of windows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worldwide pandemic of SARS‐CoV‐2 which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has resulted in first‐time responses in recent history as most of affected countries are confining residents to their homes. When sick people are detected, home quarantine is usually recommended because of the lack of available hospital rooms for first‐stage symptoms that do not require constant medical monitoring. In this situation, one can thus wonder about the transmission of the disease to other household members. In this paper, we numerically investigate the transport of the aerosol generated by an infected person quarantined to his bedroom to the other rooms in a typical French detached house by performing TRNSYS‐CONTAM simulations. The intent here is to assess the exposure concentration to the virus of the other household members when simple strategies are employed to reduce the risk of airborne transmission. Due to the uncertainty regarding the evaluation of different parameters such as the emission of contaminated droplets and the infectivity of the occupants, critical cases have been considered in this study. The main results show that, even if remediation actions lower the exposure of other occupants, the risk of contamination remains high even if the contagious person is quarantined to its bedroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing integration of decentral renewable energy systems in the residential sector, the opportunity to enhance the control via model predictive control is available. In this article, the main focus is to investigate the objective function of the model predictive controller (MPC) of an integrated thermal-electrical renewable energy system consisting of photovoltaics, solar thermal collectors, fuel cell along with auxiliary gas boiler and electricity grid using electrical and thermal storage in a single-family house. The mathematical definition of the objective function and the depth of detailing the objectives are the prime focus of this particular article. Four different objective functions are defined and are investigated on a day-to-day basis in the selected six representative days of the whole year for the single-family house in Ehingen, Germany with a white-box simulation model simulated using TRNSYS and MATLAB. Using the clustering technique then the six representative days are weighted extrapolated to a whole year and the outcomes of the whole year MPC implementation are estimated. The results show that the detailing of the mathematical model, even though is time and personnel consuming, does have its advantages. With the detailed objective function, 9% more solar thermal fraction; 32% less power-to-heat at an expense of 32% more gas boiler usage; 6% more thermal system effectiveness along with 10% increased total self-consumption fraction with 16% decrease in space heating demand, 492 kWh more battery usage and 66% reduced fuel cell production is achieved by the MPC in comparison to the status quo controller. Except for the effectiveness of the thermal system with increased gas boiler usage, which occurs due to less power-to-heat, the detailed objective function in comparison to the simple mathematical definition does evidently increase the smartness of the MPC.

In Slovenia, the existing organised housing infrastructure for people over 65 years of age is insufficient and lacks diversification. Older people are often homeowners, many of whom dwell in large, underused single-family houses that require adaptations. Some have the potential to be transformed into small co-housing communities of 3–6 older people. The houses in question are mostly pattern-book houses of various types, built in the first decades after WWII. To approach the problem of converting this mass resource while providing enough flexibility for individual customisation, a shape grammar was proposed, with the intension of expanding the range of design variations for the transformation of single-family houses and presenting them to both users and architects for further assessment. The shape grammar was inferred based on a corpus of case studies developed by architecture students across two weeklong workshops. Three general strategies emerged—splitting the house vertically (according to sleeping/private and living/communal functions), horizontally, or with the maximum number of sleeping/private spaces. Essential spaces were catalogued to determine the conditions and requirements for assigning every transformation rule. The result was a simple, yet versatile composition generator. Through the development of a user-friendly interface, this resource could be used to empower potential inhabitants in the transformation design process.

Single family houses consume substantially more thermal energy per floor area compared to multi-apartment buildings to satisfy space heating or cooling demand. Over the past decades there has been an undisputed evidence of a temperature rise across the world that has led to a growing concern of more extreme weather patterns and regular seasonal heat waves globally. As such, building occupants are at a continuously growing risk to overheating exposure inside the premises. Within the framework of this study a single-family house was examined with respect to its thermal performance in warm and cold seasons. A simulation model was developed in IDA-ICE software to evaluate annual thermal energy demand for a reference scenario, 3 shading scenarios and for an optimized scenario. At an optimized scenario that incorporates mechanical ventilation with a heat recovery unit and enhanced thermal performance of the external building elements, the annual thermal energy demand in the proposed single-family house was reduced by 39.5 % compared to the reference scenario, which is a significant step towards meeting nearly zero energy building criteria.

Several actions have been taken in Uruguay to reduce CO2 atmospheric emissions, including modification of the energy matrix. In recent years more than 90% of electricity was produced by renewable sources, such as wind power, hydro (run-of-river) or biomass. Despite this fact, the building, construction, and transport sectors are still great responsible of the environmental impacts produced by human activities. Moreover, several studies show advances of methodologies that allow the environmental impact calculation and the definition strategies for reduction. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered one of the most transparent and recognized method by the international scientific community. This study aims to develop a methodology based on LCA, to calculate the environmental impacts produced by timber buildings during their life cycle. The case study verification focuses on “La Casa Uruguaya”, a social single-family timber house. The proposed methodology allows obtaining the environmental impacts of the whole life cycle, from the detailed design stages of design. Results show the relevance of the use stage (energy consumption, maintenance, repair, refur-bishment and replacement) and product stage (raw material, manufacture and transport) compared to the rest of the life cycle stages included in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jihočeský Sborník Historický is the property of Jihoceskeho Muzeum v Ceskych Budejovicich and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of e & i Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Knowledge of the influence of factors determining energy consumption in buildings is very important for the possibility of effective energy saving. This article describes the results of an original study on the analysis of the annual energy demand for heating (QH;nd), cooling (QC;nd), and annual usable energy demand (QH/C;nd = QH;nd + QC;nd) assumed as objective functions of a designed single-family building, which can be classified as a typical representative of currently built houses in Poland. It was assumed that the object of study was located in the climatic conditions of north-eastern Poland. The study takes into consideration three groups of selected parameters: architectural/spatial, structural, and physical properties of windows. The research was carried out in a single-family building, as energy consumption in residential buildings accounts for a significant part of the total energy consumption in buildings. In the group of architectural/spatial parameters, the height of rooms in the building (h) and the window area change coefficient (k) were taken into consideration. The design parameters pertained to the solutions of building components: the density of the material of the inner layer of the external walls (ρ1), the density of the material of internal walls (ρ2), and the thickness of internal walls (d). In the third group of parameters, the heat transfer coefficient of the glazing (Ug) and the total solar transmittance of the glazing (g) were considered. Deterministic mathematical models of these dependencies were developed on the basis of the results of a computational experiment, obtained by performing a simulation with the use of the DesignBuilder software, based on the EnergyPlus computational engine. The models allowed the authors to estimate the degree and nature of the influence of the examined factors on the building’s energy demand. As a result of the optimization of parameters according to the energy criterion, the contribution of each of the three groups of parameters to energy saving was determined. Deterministic numerical optimization using MATLAB was applied. It turned out that the factors from the first group played the most important role in energy savings (40.0%), and the factors from the third group contributed slightly less (25.7%). The contribution of the characteristics from the second group was 4.2% of the total value of energy saving. This information can be useful to scientists, as well as engineers and policymakers, in making correct decisions when designing new residential buildings.

In buildings with good-quality thermal insulation of external partitions, the main component of the building’s heat balance is the heat demand for ventilation. The reduction of this energy demand cannot be achieved at the expense of thermal comfort of the occupants and indoor air quality. The aim of this article is to analyze the impact of various ventilation strategy (natural and mechanical) on heating demand, thermal comfort, and CO2 concentration in a single-family house located in Poland. The benefits of using fans integrated with the earth tube were tested. The study was based on the numerical energy simulation of a multi-zone building model for the entire calendar year. Contam, EnergyPlus, and Python programs were used to perform calculations. The thermal model was validated on the results of temperature measurements in the building. To obtain the best solutions, the parameters of the systems considered have been optimized with the use of genetic algorithms. Various optimal parameters of the earth tube (diameter, length, and foundation depth) were obtained during this research. The highest number of thermal discomfort hours was obtained in the naturally ventilated building with automatic window opening. This system supplied to the rooms a large amount of cool outdoor air in winter and warm air in summer, causing instantaneous rapid fluctuations in indoor temperature. Supplementing the mechanical ventilation control system with CO2 concentration sensors resulted in a much higher amount of ventilation air supplied to the rooms compared to systems controlled only by temperature sensors, resulting in an increase in heat demand.

With the increasing integration of decentral renewable energy systems in the residential sector, the opportunity to enhance the control via model predictive control is available. In this article, the main focus is to investigate the objective function of the model predictive controller (MPC) of an integrated thermal-electrical renewable energy system consisting of photovoltaics, solar thermal collectors, fuel cell along with auxiliary gas boiler and electricity grid using electrical and thermal storage in a single-family house. The mathematical definition of the objective function and the depth of detailing the objectives are the prime focus of this particular article. Four different objective functions are defined and are investigated on a day-to-day basis in the selected six representative days of the whole year for the single-family house in Ehingen, Germany with a white-box simulation model simulated using TRNSYS and MATLAB. Using the clustering technique then the six representative days are weighted extrapolated to a whole year and the outcomes of the whole year MPC implementation are estimated. The results show that the detailing of the mathematical model, even though is time and personnel consuming, does have its advantages. With the detailed objective function Jd, 9% more solar thermal fraction; 32% less power-to-heat at an expense of 32% more gas boiler usage; 6% more thermal system effectiveness along with 10% increased total self-consumption fraction with 16% decrease in space heating demand, 492 kWh more battery usage and 66% reduced fuel cell production is achieved by the MPC in comparison to the status quo controller. Except for the effectiveness of the thermal system with increased gas boiler usage, which occurs due to less power-to-heat, the detailed objective function in comparison to the simple mathematical definition does evidently increase the smartness of the MPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to determine whetherthe property price is caused by the subdivision neighbourhood designs intheBangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand. Atotal price model is developed during the analysisprocess. The model provides a greater understanding ofthesignificanceof thesubdivision neighbourhood designs that arerelated to property pricing. This paper is based on data collection from50 subdivisions across the BMR area. The hedonic pricing approach is used to develop the models. The semi-log models are developed on 1,182 samples of property sales locatedin eightzones oftheBMR. The independent variables include general bundles of property characteristics andthesubdivision neighbourhood design items. There are twomajor findings in this study. First, this study providesasuitable property price model forsubdivision development intheBMR. The model presents the high level of R2at 0.948. The model confirms that all classical hedonic variables are statistically significant to the property price. Furthermore, the additional alternative variables for thesubdivision neighbourhood design items can improve the level of variation explained by the model. Second, this study finds that the average property price attributable tothesubdivision neighbourhood design is about 20.24 % of the total property price.The components ofthesubdivision neighbourhood design items consist of project characteristics, recreation features, social facilities, and transportation system design. The model should support knowledge of the design’s impact on theproperty price fortheGovernment or policy makerson making appropriate policiesfor urban and environmental management. The model provides a guideline for developers on appropriate property selling-pricesfor subdivision development intheBMR. The new understanding oftheproperty price attributable to the subdivision neighbourhood designs support suitable decision making on new subdivision development in the BMR.

Copyright of ZARCH: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture & Urbanism is the property of Universidad de Zaragoza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Microgrids (MGs) utilising both renewables and energy storage to optimise onsite energy consumption rather than importing power form the utility grid, require a tertiary-level energy management system (EMS). The EMS must monitor and control the energy exchange within the nodes of MG to maximise any solar energy generation and benefit from installed storage. This paper considers a single-family house as the MG that has DC distribution circuit model. The look-ahead EMS is formulated as a linear programming problem, which has been tested in both offline simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation environment. The simulation results indicate that the proposed look-ahead EMS can effectively reduce the DC MG operation cost without any operational constraint violation. In addition, the proposed look ahead energy optimisation approach has the potential to be used in a large-scale system such as a community MG with multiple buildings.

Microgrids (MGs) utilising both renewables and energy storage to optimise onsite energy consumption rather than importing power form the utility grid, require a tertiary-level energy management system (EMS). The EMS must monitor and control the energy exchange within the nodes of MG to maximise any solar energy generation and benefit from installed storage. This paper considers a single-family house as the MG that has DC distribution circuit model. The look-ahead EMS is formulated as a linear programming problem, which has been tested in both offline simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation environment. The simulation results indicate that the proposed look-ahead EMS can effectively reduce the DC MG operation cost without any operational constraint violation. In addition, the proposed look ahead energy optimisation approach has the potential to be used in a large-scale system such as a community MG with multiple buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ZARCH: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture & Urbanism is the property of Universidad de Zaragoza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on a particular solution of low price housing –the carré mulhousien–. This was the ideal model built in Oporto and its analysis allows the display of wide frame indications, which will be referenced later in the first practices of social housing of modern architecture in urban context. The paper explores some key themes for the understanding, between different geographies, of working-class housing reform in the end of the 19th Century, putting the emphasis on the single-family detached house and the garden-city ideal.

The use of lightweight concrete for the construction of single-family houses has become increasingly popular in Spain. In this paper, single-family houses with different shape factors and window-to-wall ratios are analysed from both a thermal and environmental perspective using Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software to calculate the energy demand. The study has been carried out for different Atlantic microclimates (coastal, inland, and mountain) in northern Spain. What most affects the thermal energy used for air conditioning is the variation of the microclimates, so the study focuses mainly on this aspect. Operational energy for heating has decreased greatly via the use of high degree of insulation and hence the next task is to decrease the total energy consumed taking into account the embodied energy. Impacts on Primary Energy and Global Warming Potential are calculated using a cradle-to-grave approach. The energy use for heating and domestic hot water is analysed for different thicknesses of insulation under three energy supply scenarios: electricity only (for 2018 and with the Spanish decarbonisation plan for 2030); heat pump plus electricity; and natural gas boiler. Even for houses with a good level of insulation, the ratio of operational-to-total impacts varies significantly: from 46% to 87% for primary energy and from 31% to 75% for global warming potential, depending on the shape factor of the house, the microclimate and the heat supply scenario. By applying future environmental policies, electricity can become a more environmentally friendly option than natural gas.

The majority of the single-family houses in Sweden are affected by deteriorations in building envelopes as well as heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. These dwellings are, therefore, in need of extensive renovation, which provides an excellent opportunity to install renewable energy supply systems to reduce the total energy consumption. The high investment costs of the renewable energy supply systems were previously distinguished as the main barrier in the installation of these systems in Sweden. House-owners should, therefore, compare the profitability of the energy supply systems and select the one, which will allow them to reduce their operational costs. This study analyses the profitability of a ground source heat pump, photovoltaic solar panels and an integrated ground source heat pump with a photovoltaic system, as three energy supply systems for a single-family house in Sweden. The profitability of the supply systems was analysed by calculating the payback period (PBP) and internal rate of return (IRR) for these systems. Three different energy prices, three different interest rates, and two different lifespans were considered when calculating the IRR and PBP. In addition, the profitability of the supply systems was analysed for four Swedish climate zones. The analyses of results show that the ground source heat pump system was the most profitable energy supply system since it provided a short PBP and high IRR in all climate zones when compared with the other energy supply systems. Additionally, results show that increasing the energy price improved the profitability of the supply systems in all climate zones.

This study examines how the energy renovation of old detached houses affects the hourly power consumption of heating and electricity in Finland. As electrification of heating through heat pumps becomes more common, the effects on the grid need to be quantified. Increased fluctuation and peak power demand could increase the need for fossil-based peaking power plants or call for new investments to the distribution infrastructure. The novelty in this study is the focus on hourly power demand instead of just annual energy consumption. Identifying the influence of building energy retrofits on the instantaneous power demand can help guide policy and investments into building retrofits and related technology. The work was done through dynamic building simulation and utilized building configurations obtained through multi-objective optimization. Deep energy retrofits decreased both the total and peak heating power consumption. However, the use of air-source heat pumps increased the peak power demand of electricity in district heated and wood heated buildings by as much as 100%. On the other hand, peak power demand in buildings with direct electric heating was reduced by 30 to 40%. On the building stock level, the demand reduction in buildings with direct electric heating could compensate for the increase in the share of buildings with ground-source heat pumps, so that the national peak electricity demand would not increase. This prevents the increase of demand for high emission peaking power plants as heat pump penetration rises. However, a use is needed for the excess solar electricity generated by the optimally retrofitted buildings, because much of the solar electricity cannot be utilized in the single-family houses during summer.